Pokémon: World At War
by RedSibra
Summary: Set in a world of political unrest; Japan; a nation divided, struggles to survive. Helping keep people together, are creatures of fantastic powers known as Pokémon. This story is set before the events of the video games, "Pokemon Red/Blue."
1. Pilot

**PILOT**

The roar of the crowd echoed throughout the stadium. Rock walls on all four sides were carved by rows of steel bleachers packed with rowdy thugs and drunken spectators. This underground arena was a reflection of the world above, a world of anarchy and chaos. A fluorescent spotlight was cast down on both sides of the pit. From each corner emerged a man accompanied by his loyal ally; his Pokémon. All eyes were set dead at the arena now. Standing on the right side, was a man no more than twenty years of age. He had slick black hair, and a thin build. He was dressed in the normal tattered garb of all the thugs in the stadium. Next to him was a two-foot purple beast with spikes running down its back, and a sharp horn protruding from its head. The horn glowed with a purple tint as poisonous liquid began to ooze out of it. The beast, spikes bristling, kicked its feet against the ground and let out a fierce cry. The beast's partner smiled. On the left side, stood a man of identical age, his features concealed by the dark hooded jacket he wore. Beside him stood a ghostly purple figure no more than five feet in height with glowing red eyes. Both the hooded man and his partner cracked an eerie wide smile that seemed to pierce the darkness of their very being.

Both men approached the center and a systematic flashing of spotlights followed them with each step. The booming of a loudspeaker overtook the crowd as an announcer began his excited commentary on the event.

"Welcome everybody to the semifinals of the Annual Seafoam Islands; Battle Champions Tournament. We are your hosts, Naun and Myku!" From a spectator's box above the arena, an older bald man with a long brown mustache was speaking into a microphone being amplified by his three foot blue companion, who had natural loudspeakers for ears. "In the blue corner, we have Hajime, a Cinnabar native fighting alongside his partner, Nido!" The crowd cheered on for their familiar fighters, calling out their names. "In the red corner, we have Yuya! He traveled all the way here from Sentora, central of the Kanto region. Yuya is fighting alongside his trusted ally, Gimann!" At Naun's mention of Central capital, the audience booed at the sound of it, throwing garbage and causing ruckus perhaps, just maybe, now there was a purpose to. With the way those of us on the edges of the region are neglected, I don't really blame them. "Both teams have pulled off an incredible season so far. Soon enough we will see which pair of fighters are worthy enough to take on our reigning champ in the finals. Trainers, take your positions." Hajime and Yuya entered a fighting pose with their Pokémon. "Let the battle commence!" And with those words, the death match ensued.

"Nido, Poison Sting now!" Hajime shouted to his partner. With that, Nido launched a barrage of poisonous needles at Yuya and Gimann. Yuya countered by maneuvering laterally and revealing a katana to deflect the attack. Using Nido's offensive as cover; Hajime dashed towards his opponent and unsheathed his own blade. Hajime moved in and lunged at Yuya with a powerful swipe. Yuya took advantage of an opening from Nido's poison sting to block Hajime's strike. The two trainers locked swords and locked eyes. Yuya smiled his bizarre grimace and gave a command to his identically faced partner.

"Giman, Shadow Ball." With the command, Gimann channeled a mysterious ghostly energy within its clasped hands to form a glowing black orb. Hajime jolted at the sight of it but before he could react, he was blasted back several feet by the Shadow Ball, crashing to the floor. Yuya and Gimann beamed their wide grimace once again at the sight of their injured opponent. Naun from the announcer's box was relaying the events transpiring to the audience. Nido rushed to Hajime's side; pushing him to get up.

"I know, Nido. I shouldn't have rushed in like that. I'll be damned if some Sentora scum thinks I'm gonna throw in the towel." Hajime stood up and glared at his opponent. Nido did the same, growling and baring its fangs. Yuya just stood there, that creepy smile glued to his face. Unfazed by his demeanor, Hajime prepared for a second offensive, this time letting his opponent make the first move. That was just what Yuya did.

"Gimann, Double Team!" Complying with its trainer, Gimann began to multiply itself into intangible copies; hiding Yuya in the process. Hajime, keeping composure, searched through the copies, looking for his foe. Out of the sea of ghosts, a familiar black orb flew at Hajime.

"Not good." Alarmed, he called to Nido. "Quick! Use Protect!" Nido rushed in front of his partner and emitted a force field to disengage the Shadow Ball. Another orb flew out from the Double Team, this time from a different direction. Nido, still using Protect, shielded its ally once more. Noticing, Nido's Protect starting to weaken, Hajime closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. "Ok, time to change it up. Nido, Focus Energy." With the command, Nido nodded, trusting his trainer's decision. Nido began to channel its strength, glowing with concentration. Hajime opened his eyes and took a fighting stance behind his partner. He looked into the waves of smug-faced phantoms and noticed the Shadow ball onslaught had halted. "He needs to get close to give commands." Hajime thought out loud. In an instant, Yuya revealed himself dashing between the Gimann clones and Hajime locked his sights on the direction of his enemy. "There you are! Nido at 2 o'clock, use Poison Jab!" Nido and Hajime dashed through a line of pseudo Gimanns, dissipating them as they advanced. Just as Hajime calculated, Yuya was now right in front of them. Nido leaped into the air, its horn glowing with venom. Hajime lunged as well but from the ground, giving Yuya no way to escape.

"Gimann Hypnosis!" Yuya issued his command. A sleep-inducing trance halted Nido's Poison Jab, as it fell to the ground. Hajime, not letting up his attack, went to barrage Yuya with furious swipes and slashes but his opponent parried and matched his strikes, disarming him. Yuya proceeded to hit Hajime with a crushing kick, knocking him to the floor. The clones vanished, and the real one was nowhere in sight. Beaten, Hajime looked over at his unconscious partner, puzzled at how he was bested so easily.

"But where was it?" Hajime muttered.

"Gimann, Hypnosis once more." From Hajime's shadow, a red eyed, wide smiled, face emerged and emitted a dazing wave of energy. "When you closed your eyes during your little Focus Energy bit, Gimann slipped into your shadow. I made my movements obvious so you would get close enough for me to issue the command for two precisely aimed Hypnoses.

"You capital scum! To hell with all of you! You won't have your way with this country! I oughta…I ought…I…will." Hajime cursed at his subduer but was unable to act upon his frustration as he too slipped into unconsciousness.

"Now time to finish it. Gimann…Nightmare." And with that, the ghost tormented the dreams of both Hajime and Nido for several agonizing minutes until their screams ceased to be heard any longer.

"We have a winner! Yuya from Sentora will take on our champion in the finals!" Naun exclaimed over the Poké-loudspeaker. The crowd went wild; maybe because they really are rooting for Yuya. Or perhaps it was because they now would get the chance to see a Central trainer be broken alive by their beloved champion. Or maybe the bloodshed just gets everyone so….rambunctious. I however could not bear the sight of the poor fool who was now incapacitated due to his rashness. Hajime and Nido were carried off the arena in stretchers by a burly gray Pokémon.

I stepped outside of the arena into the night. I walked past the two buff Pokémon bouncers who guarded the entrance and sat on the cold Seafoam beach; avian Pokémon grazing the water, the red and blue heads of jellyfish Pokémon basking in the chilled air. Then a familiar friend teetered over to me, his shiny gold fur sparkling in the moonlight. He was carrying charcoal which he set down in front of us and gave me a cute nip on the ear. I nudged him playfully as he curled up right by my side. Sensing the chill, he breathed an ember onto the coal and I stroked him gently, massaging his fluffy mane. As we sat there in the peaceful night air, I wanted nothing more than for every moment, in every region, to be like this one right here, right now; moments of serenity, of just pure warmth in the midst of a world so very cold. But reality lay right here with us, patiently waiting to overtake me once again, just as it always has. I held my friend tight and whispered into his floppy yellow ears: "We're going to have to face a man from Central tomorrow, Apollo."


	2. I Promise

**I Promise**

All around me were nothing but dark, cold walls of stone. Stalagmites were dripping with moisture and my footsteps echoed as I trudged on into an abyss. I did not know where I was or where I was going. The cave itself seemed to suck the light out of not only its innards but out of my very soul. I aimlessly searched for some sign of salvation but instead I was greeted by the distant sound of thousands of tiny flapping wings. The sound got closer and closer, coming from some unknown position. I could not pinpoint the location of the sound, as the boundless cave of darkness granted me no sense of my whereabouts. Suddenly, out of the nothingness, there pierced a wide toothed grin. The darkness of the void itself seemed to be bearing it. It was as if the cave was smiling, giving off the only radiance I could see. The grin widened. A chill in my bones rattled my body as the sound of tiny flapping wings grew closer. I tried to call out, to Apollo, to anyone, but no sound came. Had I become just a part of this nothingness? The wings were right on me now; they manifested themselves around the disembodied smile. I could see them, the dark-piercing smile casting light on little blue bodies, flapping their purple wings violently and shrieking at a shattering frequency. They took a formation, the hundreds of them, around that damned grin. They took on the shape of a ghostly figure, one I have seen before. My senses came to a halt, replacing all feeling in my body with nothing but that of a dark and frozen numbness. The figure opened its mouth wide. Slowly, all of existence was swallowed whole, leaving nothing, not even darkness. I tried to run but I was just a part of the void, doomed to be sucked into a vacuum so powerful, it engulfed itself.

Then, I jumped. My heart pounding as awareness and reality rushed back into me. It was as cold as in that cave, despite the perspiration running down my back. I took a deep breath and tried to regulate my body and looked around the familiar setting of my room. Light was seeping through an open square in the wall to my right and an empty sleeping bag was below it. A wooden door leading outside in front of me, and a bureau on the left with a small picture frame on top of it. I glanced at the frame and looked at the picture. The familiar faces of it grounded me back in realness. There were four people. On the bottom left was, a young brunette haired girl, no more than five years of age, wearing a green straw hat. A smile was beaming on her face as she was hugging tightly, a small green lizard-like Pokémon with large yellow sclera and small black slits for eyes. The Pokémon's stomach was bright red and had a long dark green tail. It had an expression of annoyance at the girl holding it so firm. Next to them was a slightly older young boy with wild black hair covered by a red straw hat. From underneath the hat you could see streams of tears rushing down his little face and his mouth gaping wide open. In his arms was a small blue amphibious, four legged Pokémon. It had a large fin on its head and another for a tail. The Pokémon had two large orange star-shaped gills on its cheeks, and was bawling its eyes out as well, mouth wide open. To the right of the crying pair was a young teenage girl in a yellow straw hat with long electrifying blonde hair and a mischievous look on her face. She was nudging the crying boy with one arm and holding a Pokémon against her chest with the other. It was a small orange-feathered chick with short stubby yellow wings. The feathers upon its head formed a flame-like crest. The chick was pecking the crying blue amphibian in the boy's arms next to them. On the blonde girl's adjacent shoulder, a small yellow mouse Pokémon with red cheeks and a zigzag shaped tail looked on at the others laughingly. In the center standing above all of the children, was a tall dignified man in a white straw hat. He was smiling wide at the camera despite an apparent exhaustion emanating from his features. He was holding a canine Pokémon with sparkling golden fur, black stripes, and cream colored fluff on its belly, tail, and head. The golden canine was giving the crying boy a wet lick of alleviation.

I could not help but smile at the picture. It soothed me in a way. I got out of my sleeping bag, senses back to normal, and stretched. I made for the door and shielded my eyes as I was welcomed by a warm breeze blowing beneath a bright morning sun. Adjusting to the light, I was greeted to the sight of a shining golden beach stretching horizontally across miles of coast. Small crab-like Pokémon were poking around the coastline as the sand was pounded by the light push of a deep blue ocean. In the distance I saw a group of large blue, horned aquatic Pokémon playing peacefully in the open sea, oblivious to a world beyond. I stepped out of my humble hut and I looked to the right of me. Not too far away, a girl with long brunette hair in a green floral patterned dress was tending to a collection of colorful plants in a small fertile spot of land. The plants varied greatly to the vast expanse of palm trees and jungle that stretched behind my home. With the girl, was Apollo and another Pokémon; a three foot lizard with a red underbelly. It had leaves growing from its wrists and tail and a long one extending from its head. The Pokémon's black eye slits caught sight of me as they traveled across its yellow sclera. It turned its head towards me, causing the others to do the same.

The girl pushed a handful of hair out of her eyes and looked in my direction. A smile came across her face and seemed to send warm sunrays bouncing towards me. She had a green flower in her hair that complimented her dress.

"Honō." She said softly.

"Morning, Kuna!" I waved at her. I couldn't help but smile back at her contagious expression. Apollo ran over to me and I lifted him high. "Beautiful day huh, Apollo?" I laughed, spinning my partner around as he licked my face. I walked over to Kuna's colorful little garden and the leafy lizard gave me a silent nod, arms folded. "Good morning to you too, Hiyoku." I gleamed. Out of a patch of mud, a familiar partner burrowed up above ground; a light blue amphibian with a black fin on its head and two more on its tail. It had an orange circle on its belly, two orange pointed gills on its cheeks, and two long three-fingered arms. It saw me and smiled as it gave me a muddy hug. "Straume! I missed you so much, buddy." He fell back in the mud groggily and rolled around, finding a comfortable spot to resume his rest. "Looks like your day hasn't started yet." I said, shaking the mud off of me but glad to see my old friend. I looked at Kuna who ran up and embraced me as well. She held me tight with a warm affection. I held tight back. However our hug was interrupted by a sharp slap across the face. Kuna's beaming expression turned into one of a concerned rage.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been? You disappeared for a whole month, left nothing behind but fifty thousand yen, abandoned Hiyoku, Straume, and I to fend for ourselves while you were off doing who knows what. You can't just disappear like that Honō! We can't afford to risk separating this family even more." She kept on motor-mouthing but I was too dazed from her strike to register the further scolding.

"Kuna, I'm sorry. I wanted to find a way to earn some cash so we could have a little more money for us." I said, trying to rub the sting away.

"You have to tell me about these things! What if you woke up one morning, and you couldn't find_me_ anywhere on the island? Do you know what that feels like?"

"I didn't want to worry you with wherever I was and whatever I was doing. Would I really leave my sister alone if I knew she wasn't in protective care anyway? Hiyoku and Straume are completely capable of looking out for you. They've gotten hella strong over the years." I gave a thumb's up to Hiyoku who just closed his eyes smugly.

"Please, as if I needed you to protect me all the time. I'm not just your defenseless little sister anymore." She paused. "It's just that…a lot happened over the past month." Kuna's worry started to overtake her rage. "I was seriously worried that nobody would be able to protect _you_." I looked away from her. I knew what was coming. "Look at me!" She said, holding my face towards her. "You're so careless! You do all these things for me that you claim are for my protection but put yourself at so much risk to do so. Tell me, where is the sense in that? We need to look out for each other, Honō. You can't just take up the entire burden."

"Kuna…" I didn't know what to say. Perhaps she was right. The least I could do was maybe give her an update on the whereabouts of my spontaneous expeditions. But I can't imagine anything even remotely dangerous happening on the isolated island we live on. Even our house was miles away from the only town here, and it was full of just weary peace-seeking refugees. People like us.

"Ever since Hikari, you haven't been the same. You've become so quiet, Honō. Quit acting all mysterious!" I braced myself, feeling another slap coming, but instead it was a feeling of another warm embrace. Glad, I held onto it for as long as I could; trying to absorb as much warmth to rid myself of a cold I felt so deep inside. "There's a Sentora outpost on the island." She said, and I widened my eyes. "They just keep finding us. It's like we can't escape them no matter how much we run." This shocked me. The brief moments of warmth I was clinging on to were replaced with a familiar chill. It ran down my spine and emanated throughout my body.

"What?" I muttered, hoping that by some uncanny miracle, I had misinterpreted her.

"Yes...there hasn't been any activity but they made a base up near the volcano." She pointed past the expanse of jungle up at the towering hill overlooking the island; spewing a light smoke from the summit. "Everyone in town is on edge." It sunk in now, the capital of Kanto whose government had taken so many lives, and ruled over the region with an iron fist, was once again right at our doorstep. I couldn't understand how they found this place. We were so careful about keeping a low profile, I had never mentioned at the tournament my real identity or home. Then…it hit me.

"I know why." I said. Kuna looked at me, as if she knew too. "I've been at the Seafoam Islands." Her expression was unchanged, there could only have been that explanation for my whereabouts over the past month. "Usually only trainers and thugs from Fuchsia in the northeast enter the tournament, because of how close it is. But this year there was an entrant from here…from Cinnabar. Word must have gotten out about how strong he was because he made it all the way to the semifinals. His opponent was a man from Sentora. He must have relayed the information of there being trainers on Cinnabar back to Central. That's why the outpost is here…that's why they know. They want to keep an eye on us."

"It was Hajime, wasn't it?" Kuna asked sternly. I was surprised at how she knew who he was.

"How do you know that?"

"Sword master, Katto. Hajime was a student of his as well. He joined around the time you stopped training. And disappeared from Cinnabar the same time you did." I was at as much of a loss for words as my sister seemed to be full of surprises. "Is he…?" Kuna asked but she already knew the answer.

"Yes." I told her. We broke eye contact. The image of the poor young man having his mind destroyed before an entire audience replayed in my head again all too vividly. Kuna, accepting of the events that cannot be changed, looked back at me.

"Tell me. What's the man from Central like? What Pokémon does he use?" She asked

"His name is Yuya. The guy gives me a serious case of the creeps. He's a swordsman like Hajime and trained the ghost...Gengar." I told her.

"Gengar?!" Kuna asked in disbelief. "Like the ones in Dad's storybooks? I never heard of one actually being trained."

"Yes they aren't easily submissive Pokémon. He must have raised it from an early stage and even so, he's extremely skilled to have trained it. Yuya used the Gengar's abilities to mess with people's senses and hypnosis based strategies to win. He breezed through his matches all the way to the semifinals. It was crazy, like nothing I'd ever seen before. The reason I'm back before our match is because I need Straume. This is something that Apollo and I can't do on our own." Straume twitched at the sound of his name and jumped up from his mud patch. He clenched his hand and gave me a determined look. I gave him one back.

"I don't want you to go, Honō." Kuna said as she looked away but she already knew nothing she could say at this point would stop me. Not when we're so close to crushing a man from Central, humiliating them, and giving hope to whoever we can. We can get people to see that Sentora can be beaten, and we can one day have our country back. Kuna walked over to her patch of assorted fruit-bearing plants and stopped at one plant with bright pink leaves. She plucked from the plant, several of its fruit and walked back over to me. "But if you're facing someone who uses sleep-inducing moves, you'll need these." She held out a handful of thick berries that had a hard brown bottom and were covered on top by a dark blue.

"What are they?" I asked, taking them but not sure as to how fruit were going to help me win a battle.

"The plant they come from is called Chesto." Kuna smiled as she began to describe the pride and joy of her work.

"When you feel drowsy, eat them. The berries are packed with a powerful natural stimulant. It'll keep you awake even under the most intense trance." I smiled back at her as I put the berries away in my pocket and couldn't help but remember the only other person who was so adept at things like this.

"Kuna, you're starting to become so much like mom." I said with great satisfaction; I now had one more trick up my sleeve to use against Yuya in the finals. Kuna blushed, feeling praised, but I saw a longing in her eyes. The absence of how her mother truly was, left her to wonder the comparison. "I should get going. It's gonna take me a while to get back to Seafoam." I turned away and walked towards the beach, Apollo and Straume beside me, when Kuna called out to me.

"Wait!" She yelled as her and Hiyoku caught up with us. I turned back at her. A look of boldness was growing in her eyes. "If you're going back to Seafoam to pose as Hikari, you'd better be damn ready." Kuna widened her stance, her bright brunette hair flowing with the slight breeze. Hiyoku stood up tall next to her. "Cuz you've got big shoes to fill, brother." She looked at me, with unfazed confidence. I smiled. I knew what this meant. That look…when another trainer has it, it can only mean one thing. My blood rose to a boil as I flexed my hands. Apollo and Straume tensed eagerly as they sensed the heat. Kuna lifted the skirt of her dress slightly to pull out a finely crafted dagger, which she then took a stance with in reverse grip position. "Hiyoku, Leech Seed." Her partner spat a seed out of its mouth right onto Kuna's dagger. The seed opened upon contact and let out a plant that encased the entire blade with a thorny vine.

The battle had begun.

"Let's go, Hiyoku, Leaf Blade! They charged at me; Kuna bearing her blade, Hiyoku holding out the sharp leaves on his wrists. I laughed to myself quietly; my defenseless little sister is truly no more. The heat of battle now ablaze, I looked at my partners and they knew too. From this point forward no words needed to be spoken between us. We entered formation; Apollo up front and left, Straume up front and right, me in the center. Apollo launched a blast of golden flame from his mouth and Straume launched a blast of water. The two attacks, aimed at Kuna and Hiyoku were dodged as they jumped over them towards me but combined into a sparkling array of bursting energy. The pair kept on their assault towards me but in an instant I saw the openings of their attack and quickly grabbed both of their arms with each of my own and flipped them over. As they regained their footing, I jumped away from them, giving me some distance. Apollo and Straume now turned around and I stuck out my hand in Kuna and Hiyoku's direction. My partners began an onslaught of small blasts of fire and water, separating both Kuna and Hiyoku in opposite directions; Apollo aiming at Hiyoku, and Straume aiming at Kuna. They wrapped around in a circle towards me, trying to regroup for a double assault but they were now weakened, separated.

They kept towards me, dodging the elemental onslaught, making their way closer. I kept my eye on Kuna and for an instant I did not see her but someone else in her place; a different girl. This one had electrifying blonde hair and her blade was not encased by vines but by electricity. There on her shoulder, a small yellow mouse with red cheeks giving power to her blade. In the dust of the attacks, Kuna was there again. I came back into focus. Apollo nailed Hiyoku with a Fire Blast, disengaging him. Only Kuna was advancing now, she did not let up her assault despite Straume's Hydro Pump attacks and Apollo who was now able to focus on her. She leaped over Straume and my allies halted their attacks, sensing the moment. She got closer and closer, the look in her eyes so familiar; of a woman of battle I knew before. She went for a swipe and I used a double knife hand block to disarm her. I looked in her eyes again, it was the same familiar expression…but it was different. It was that of my sister Kuna, not anybody else. I saw _her_ determination,_her_ drive for peace, _her_ wish for a protection of the ones she loved. This was Kuna's resolve and no one else's. I saw it through her eyes, in the heat of battle. More words were spoken then could be in a lifetime.

Kuna was panting, bested, she kept looking at me. I pulled in her arms, and hugged my little sister. I tried to relay the warmth she brought to me every time that I saw her.

"You better be back tomorrow." She said softly, tears forming in her eyes.

"I promise." I smiled and let her go, turning to the shore. I passed Hiyoku to make sure he was okay. I looked at him, trusting him with being a faithful ally to my now very capable sister, and held out my hand. Hiyoku grunted and looked away stubborn but he gave me his green leafy hand and I helped him up. Straume and Apollo followed after me as I approached the water. "Nessy!" I called out at the ocean, and whistled. A familiar friend swam over. A large friendly, horned blue sea creature with four large flippers, and a strong heavy shell on its back made its way towards me, breaking away from a pack of her kin.

I looked into the eyes if my friendly travel companion and stroked her horn. She understood it was time to go back. Reluctant to have me setting off for danger once more, Nessy turned around slowly, allowing the three of us to get on. We set off in the direction of Seafoam. I looked back at the beach, our hut and jungle behind it; I saw the town further down the coastline. Then up at the volcano, I saw something else, something I hadn't noticed coming back the night before. There was a building near the summit of the volcano. It wasn't large but it overlooked the whole island. I then saw a flag being hoisted, that of Central, the Sentora flag. White with a black line crossing the middle, that formed a circle in the center. I felt the familiar chill again. The chill I felt when I had nightmares of Gengar from dad's storybooks. The same chill Yuya's smile sent down my back. I felt it when I watched Hikari die, and whenever anything about Sentora is made apparent to me. The chill that won't go away.

"I promise, Kuna." I whispered as I slowly became further away from home.


	3. The Seafoam Finals

**The Seafoam Finals**

My peripherals were cut off by the concealing red hooded trench coat I had on. Like a beast with blinders, I walked to the entrance of the cavern; not making eye contact with the people I passed. Straume and Apollo walked beside me on both sides, wearing red scarves hidden with one of Kuna's berries inside. The disguise I had been using was pretty good, but I was never confident enough to be flaunting it explicitly; so I stuck with the mysterious feature-obscuring trench coat during matches. Straume was uneasy, I sensed it. Though I did not see them, I could feel them; the stares and snickers of the spectators we walked by. Besides Myku, used by Naun to amplify his commentary, Hoenn native Pokémon were not a common sight in areas other than Central. There was something else I noticed too, these were not your usual thugs and punks getting ready to watch a smack down. No, some of these people were more dignified; if you could call them that. They had a certain air to them; one of a self-righteous nobility. Decked out in their formal suits, robes and expensive attire, I realized; they could only be Sentora. My blood started to boil at the realization. Apollo sensed it too, and started to growl. This could possibly be more than what I hoped for. I now had the chance to embarrass Central right before their very eyes. What better way to wipe the floor with Yuya than in front of his own populace. I made my way to the check-in where Naun stood waiting; Myku beside him, and the two burly gray Poké-bouncers as well. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the bouncers' almost reptilian facial features; clad in black tights and golden belts too. They halted me before I entered, making it a point to flex their massive red striped muscles in doing so.

"Welcome back, _Champ._" Naun said as he approached me with a sarcastic expression. I said nothing. He need only see Apollo's infamous coat to let me in. Naun had been suspicious of me all season, but the last thing he wanted to do was lose precious business from all those gathered to watch the famed Champion. My red hood covered the blonde hairpiece I wove out of silk from the worm Pokémon of Viridian Forest. I had been holding on to that stuff since way back. I used some of my own cut hair, blonde color dye, and Apollo's shed fur for a nice glistening effect, to make it. The hood, masked the hairpiece's awkward positioning on my head, as well as my subpar attempts at eyeliner and the other cosmetics I took from Kuna's bureau. Thanks to my family resemblance, I looked pretty convincing though. No one was going to be questioning me as long as I didn't speak. I was the champion.

Inside, I saw the rowdy onlookers taking their positions on the bleachers up high; drunken and already causing ruckus before the match had even started. As I scanned the audience however, I noticed something odd about them…not just the Sentora present…something I couldn't quite place my finger on. Like an ulterior presence that I could not seem to identify. I was only able to ponder a few seconds though because then, _I passed him_.

Familiar cold air ran through my skin as I saw those piercing white teeth smiling through a dark hood. We stopped at the same moment, side by side, facing opposite directions. Apollo and Straume went berserk. They barked and hissed wildly but I held out my hands, reminding them not to be rash. Yuya continued walking, his plastered expression unchanged. As he walked away, I couldn't help but notice his ghostly partner wasn't with him. However I was abruptly corrected as my eyes wandered to his feet. In the shadow cast by the industrial lighting, I saw two gleaming red eyes, and underneath them, a matching set of white teeth. My hood concealed the terror seeping out of my pores. I stood there in idleness for a few moments and Straume had to give me a tap on the knee to knock me back into composure. Apollo was still snapping in the direction of our adversaries but I continued forward, and my partners did as well.

Our first battle had already been waged; one of intimidation, and Yuya just won that bout for sure. The previous tenacity I had, seemed to be slipping from me now. All the stories I read of Gengar haunted my mind once more. In our corner of the arena, I couldn't shake my mind off of one thing, _that smile_. It was tattooed into my mind, seemingly inerasable. On my left, Apollo and Straume were sparring beside me, circling each other, lunging, and finding each other's openings to strike. Their circling reminded me of a swirling vortex, a whirlpool of emotion, spinning within me. I couldn't break now. Not with so much on the line; the reputation of a champion, my partners faith in my judgment, the chance to take something away from the very people who took so much from me. Sentora's self-righteous arrogant selves, who placed themselves on a pedestal, now provided me with the chance to kick them off of it. The ultimate test of my decisiveness was now. These thoughts were spiraling, almost too hard to repress, the vortex gyrating out of control; when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little pink head with a tan muzzle look up at me slowly.

"Duh?" it exclaimed with a blank expression. I stared at the strange four legged creature in confusion for only a moment when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around but the sight of a thin haired man with a vacant look on his face cut the circulation of my revolving. How did this guy sneak up on me? Even Apollo and Straume didn't notice him because they were still sparring. He looked at me emptily and I looked back, hood still concealing my features, for a good five seconds. This extremely bizarre situation took an even more odd turn when he then smiled a toothless smile, opened his mouth and mumbled a bunch of words completely undecipherable to the human ear

"Ah howhee ho hoo!" Was what it sounded like before he burst into laughter. Apollo broke away from his little bout after hearing him and barked, recognizing him. He ran up to the man and jumped into his arms, brushing his tongue all over the man's face. "Eef ee hafahi ho!" He muttered, dog slobber not helping to rectify his speech. I just stared at him puzzled but didn't react; he seemed harmless, and Apollo apparently liked him. After Apollo ceased his licking, the strange guy held him in one arm, cradled, reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of false gold teeth; which he popped into his mouth and smiled a shiny prosthetic smile with, allowing him to talk legibly. "Not bad, eh?" he said laughing. "Got' em after last year." He adjusted them a bit with his free hand. "Goodness, woman, I'll never forget the drunken Saturday night, you knocked every one of my biters out. You got one helluva left hook let me tell ya; it's a shame none of the boys back in Fuchsia are up against ya this match, cuz you'd slam through em faster than those arm wrestlin' matches back at my place." He kept rambling, but I stopped paying attention for a moment, laughing to myself a bit. It was clear who he thought I was and his stories just made me miss her so much more. The man turned away and looked on past the stadium, at some alternate space, while stroking Apollo's shiny coat. "So I'm sorry for messing around witch'ya that night, you stormed off after ya made sure I could never use my own mouth to ever say disrespectin' things to a woman again, 'nd I never got to apologize. You know I was drunk right? I didn't mean it." He turned around and faced me, emptiness still radiating from his gaze. "Maybe after ya axe this Sentora loser, we can head back to the ol' pub and catch up. Whaddya say?" At a loss for words trying to register everything this man was saying, I awkwardly cleared my throat, trying to pitch my voice in the most pathetically feminine sounding tone I could muster.

"Oh…I don't know." I said, words stumbling out of my mouth. I tilted my head down to appear as antisocial as possible. Apollo wildly licked the man's face again who didn't even seem fazed by my ridiculous act.

"Bwahaha I see your infamous gold pup is as chipper as ever." He laughed as he struggled to keep his eyes open to Apollo's tongue-based assault. But then his eyes wandered over to Straume and the dopey pink creature that had just been on-looking curiously. "Hmm and who've we got here?" He asked as he bent down to Straume's eye level and stared at him with his vacant look. Straume gave him one back. They stayed that way for a good five seconds. "Well I'll be darned; this is one of them Hoenn natives if I'm not mistaken!" He finally said. The man tilted his head, Straume and the pink Pokémon mirrored him. "Yup indeed, if all my readin' serves me right, this is one of those Hoenn mudfish Pokémon." He looked over to the pink creature who stared at him with an identical glare. "And I know this one all right, this is that _slow_Pokémon. Supposedly it takes em at least five seconds to register pain, they're so darn stupid! Bwhahahaha!" He said, giving it a bunch of slaps on the back. It was like he was recalling from some incognito encyclopedia. I wondered how long it would take for_him_to register _anything_.

"Duh?" It said, flat.

"But ya know, you gotta be careful who you're walkin around with that blue fella." He set Apollo down and stared off into space as he continued to talk. "Folks don't take too kindly around these parts about seein creatures that remind them of Central. But I don't need to tell ya that do I?" He continued. For a guy who looked pretty slow, he sure knew a lot about Pokemon. "That tall, red, feathery fire Pokémon ya got was Hoenn too; and you both scorched anyone who tried to cross ya." He looked back at me suddenly, but I turned away sheepishly when I met his blank gaze. "Say, where is that feathery flame, Sukō? And that little mousey friend of yours too? What was his name? Inazuma was it?" Pressured to talk, I attempted to say something but only managed to mumble a few sounds.

"Uh..um...uh." I muttered, but he dull witted guy kept talking, ignoring my mumbles, and started analyzing me.

"Looks like you changed up your battle style quite the much." He said as he examined my partners and my clothes, seeing no weapons. I turned away from him, trying not to be found out.

"Yep, trying something new this tourney." I said in my horrendous falsetto. Unable to escape his discernment, he looked me in the eye.

"There's no mistaking those sparking brown eyes but-" That empty expression of his was not making it apparent if he was identifying me or just zoning into space. After accepting the fact that I couldn't really go anywhere, and my partners seemed to trust him, I gave in to his inspecting. I pulled back my hood and took off the false hairpiece but his vacant look remained the same. After a few seconds of his bizarre staring, he finally reacted.

"You're not Hikari!" He exclaimed. Apollo and Straume looked at him, then back at me, and jumped; pretending to be surprised as well. The dopey, pink Pokémon just sat there, seeming to be unaffected by anything in the world.

"Nope." I said somberly.

"Ya down right had me convinced, kid! You had her movements in battle spot-on all season." He paused a minute and identified us some more. "Hmm... you're with that sparkly pup, and got that silent, stoic persona…but if you're not Hikari…then...then you must be Honō! There's no mistaking the family resemblance."

"Yup, that's me." I said, still depressed.

"I thought so. Hikari talked so much about you and Kuna." He held out his hand. "The name's Baoba, put er there." He said, offering me a handshake. I accepted. "So tell me, what's Hikari's kid brother doing posing as the infamous Seafoam Champion all month long? Where is that feisty princess? Probably in a bar fight somewhere ain't she? I tell ya-"

"She's dead." I abruptly cut off his zoned out rambling. Baoba's vacant expression saw a change for once. What I said grounded him back on Earth; from the alternate universe he seemed to be a part of.

"I'm...so sorry…"

"She died protecting Kuna and me. That's why I'm fighting here, I can't let her down. She has to live on as a symbol for those who've lost hope…" The repressed vortex was swirling again. My burdens felt thrust upon my back once more. Baoba was taking it all in, refreshing the memories he must have shared with Hikari.

"Heh, leave it to the Electric Empress to go out fighting." He put his hand on my shoulder. "She was a good girl, Honō."

Then, tears came. Against my will. I couldn't hold back the repressed, swirling angst I had locked away. It burst through everything else I created to try and contain it. The ridiculous cover ups on my face started to smudge as I wiped the drops away. "How am I supposed to live up to the big sister who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect me? I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I can't defeat Yuya...I can't be Hikari...and I can't protect Kuna all by myself..." I lamented.

Apollo and Straume bumped me on the legs. They looked up at me and grunted firmly. I saw their determined faces; willing to support me. They weren't going to let me down.

"It doesn't seem like ya partners think that at all." Baoba smiled. I took in the moment, and looked at Baoba's eyes. I saw the previously empty man now momentarily being filled with profoundness. "Honō...as far as I'm concerned, Hikari hasn't died...Her indomitable fighting spirit is still strong in us." I saw Baoba arouse knowledge from a previous past experience; one that must have been truly defining. "If there's one thing I've learned from all my studying of Pokémon, it's that a trainer faithful to his partners can always depend on them...Pokémon will never betray you, Honō. And neither would Hikari." Apollo and Straume nodded and Baoba continued. "You have their strength. And by the looks of 'em, they've got tons of strength to spare. You're not in this alone at all... and you don't need to be Hikari to be just as strong." I smirked and looked back at my two inseparable friends. For some reason, Baoba got to me. He was right; Hikari was still here, and I didn't mean in the form of my mediocre portrayal. I silently composed myself, and tossed my guise; pulling the hood back over my head and I turned towards the arena, trying to erase all evidence of my little slipup. I was going to win this and I didn't need to be Hikari to do so.

"That's the spirit kid!" Baoba yelled. "Oh, by the way" I stopped to listen. "The Sentora…in the audience; they came here for a show. They've heard all about the Electric Empress...and they're _scared_I tell ya_._..So...Give em somethin to be scared about." I continued forward but he wasn't done. "One more thing." I turned back to him, his vacant stare back in an alternate space. "Always remember, you'll find allies in unexpected places." He said with a goofy smile. What did he mean by that? I glanced away to consider what he said. But when I turned back to ask him, Baoba was…gone! Just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished. The dopey pink Pokémon was still there though. After a few moments of spacey idleness, it realized Baoba's disappearance as well; jumping, surprised and then walking off somewhere aimlessly. I was baffled by the bizarreness of the last few minutes, but my new found confidence set me on the course of a new one-track mind.

I approached my spot in the arena. Baoba's words indeed helped halt the spiraling whirl of emotion deep inside me. With resolve, I sent it spinning in a new direction, one that I controlled. I let it kick start the burning drive I needed to win this fight. I remembered how incredible Hikari was. Baoba's recollection of her reminded me that I was related to that same incredible person. There was no way I could let her down. The spotlight was cast. A familiar animated commentator's voice amplified throughout the cave from the announcer's box overhead.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the final round of the annual Seafoam Islands; Battle Champions Tournament. We are your hosts, Naun and Myku!" The crowd went wild; just as they always do. I looked up at the rows of steel bleachers and saw the thugs and hooligans drinking from their beer bottles and screaming at the top of their lungs. In one section of the audience however, the people were calm, collected, _vain._The vanity you want to just knock clean off their faces. They were waiting. Sentora was here to watch their Yuya do battle with this unknown trainer of great strength. They wanted to know who this trainer was; and I was going to give them the show of their lives.

Then, I saw it again; something odd about the spectators. Not just amongst the Sentora, but among the general crowd. Like an invisible presence, watching. In addition to the crowd's eyes, there were more. I couldn't understand why, but I had no time to speculate further because Naun's booming voice set my attention back on this match.

"In the blue corner, we have the undefeated new challengers from Sentora, central of the Kanto region, Yuya and Gimann!" The crowd roared with applause, chanting for the two dark fighters. Straume stuck out his tongue and jeered at our foes, and Apollo whined indifferently. But why this now? Has Yuya gained the crowd's favoritism? Or their respects? Sentora must have something to do with this. I glanced up at them and they were motionless however. They just sat there in anticipation. They knew who Yuya was. Who they wanted to know, was Hikari. They craned their necks as Naun introduced me. "In the red corner, we have the previous champion of Seafoam, entering with a new teammate this time, the Electric Empress, commander of the Shining Lights of Kanto, Hikari and Apollo!" Straume pouted at his lack of recognition, and then the crowd started getting loud. Not in applause or cheers but with rambunctious remarks like, "Break that bitch, Yuya!" "Hoenn, go home!" and "Make it rain in red!" I understood now. Hikari's fighting style was brutal. Though I had her movements down packed, I could not replicate her knack for sanguinary performance that these people wanted to see. All of my opponents were defeated too clean. That's why they were cheering for Yuya; he would give them what they wanted to see.

I couldn't help but think that my initial goal was pointless now. These thugs were too naïve to see the significance of my defeating of a man from Sentora. But there was a reprise; the Sentora spectators themselves. My old goal didn't matter anymore. I had a new one; to astound Central with triumph. Yuya and I stepped from our sides of the arena to the middle; the spotlights followed, and we stopped at the center. Was it me or did the arena feel colder than last time? My partners didn't seem bothered, so maybe it really was me. I looked into the hood that concealed all except for that contortion of deviancy. The expression attacked me; trying to win another bout of intimidation. This time, it was engulfed in flames; burned within my resolve and now fueling the very flame melting the chill that has plagued me too long.

"This match will decide who will either remain or become the Seafoam Islands Champion. Both teams are incredibly skilled and have proved their worth all season! We'll be sure to have an all-around nail-biter these next several minutes, folks. Trainers take your positions!" It'll be a lot quicker than that, Naun. Apollo and Straume took our classic formation, with fangs bearing and faces scowling. Tensions ablaze, I looked down into Yuya's shadow. There it was; the ghost who haunted the dreams of a young boy so many years ago. The one who stopped that same boy from opening his father's storybooks just on the sheer terror of hearing tales of its malice. The same ghost chased away by that boy's big sister time-and-time again; though it had never been there. This time however, it was; and the Shining Lights of Kanto would not cease to cast it away. My flame ignited to almost maximum capacity, and I awaited Naun's signal for carnage…

"Let the battle commence!"

"Gimann, Double Team!" With Yuya's orders, Gimann jumped out of his shadow and Gengars flooded the arena; concealing his trainer in a fiasco I knew all too well. They encircled the three of us, leaving no line of vision empty. The burning flame of my resolve, harnessed into a cool light of level-headedness, I smiled. Apollo and Straume did too. Then…the flame exploded.

Apollo blasted the left side of Gengar copies with a dazzling array of gold columns of fire while Straume reciprocated the act on the right with bubbling streams of high-pressured water. They circled around me, blasting the surrounding area with their attacks, leaving vulnerable; a shocked hooded man, who just as he realized what had happened, had a handful of fingers wrapped tightly around his neck.

"What…?" He said through spasms of desperate gasps for air. I didn't give him the favor of an answer. I just held tight, and I swear I clenched his neck so hard, I saw that damn smile bursting off the very face it belonged to…


	4. Honō vs Yuya

**Honō vs. Yuya**

The crowd went wild.

Rowdy cheers and howls echoed as I slowly chocked the life force out of a man too far from home for his own good. This is what they wanted to see…

I looked into his dark pupils, the only other things visible under his hood even at this close proximity. They stared into my own, telling me something. They were telling me what they saw; a hooded trainer he could not recognize, but one whom he had sworn to kill. In Yuya's eyes, I was already dead to him: dead to him by his own hand.

Despite the future Yuya was foreseeing with such conviction, I did not let up my grip, refusing to let such a thing become real, but much to my frustration, his grimace returned.

"Wow! What an explosion of elemental assailment! It looks like the Electric Empress, Hikari has made a decisive counterattack leaving our challenger literally at the hands of his opponent!" Naun exclaimed to a steadily more rowdy crowd.

I stared unwaveringly at my opponent, searching for everything else his expressions were trying to tell me before I killed him. Then, I saw the all-too-familiar expression of his fade. This was it…Victory for my big sister. I began to smile myself.

I seemingly erased Yuya's grin from his face, but suddenly I felt it elsewhere too. It's sadism being planted and nurtured by hatred. It was growing, thriving in another location…on my own face?!

The malice of his expression took over my own with each second I spent holding Yuya's neck. For some reason, Yuya's face from beneath the hood seemed to be expanding; growing bigger and bigger. It was inflating, and I saw the smile again, the only thing visible on his enlarging face, like some kind of demonic balloon. I had no time to figure out what was happening because in an instant, it popped into a burst of ghostly mist that seemed to laugh as it dissipated., and I heard a voice whisper, "Gimann, Hypnosis."

I realized the reason for the chill. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my shadow move. I felt lights flickering in my mind, slowly turning on, then off again: a pattern of awareness and emptiness.

Fighting a losing battle with keeping the lights on, I fell to the floor. Just before I hit the ground, I heard the stomping of familiar feet racing across the arena, and the growls of battle…I couldn't let myself fall into the hypnosis; it would surely be the end of me. I couldn't leave my partners to fight alone.

I held my head to try and grasp myself in reality when suddenly, I remembered a simple sentence. The sequence of words played in my head. A sentence spoken in a voice that felt like a warm paradise's seed being planted in a garden of snow, desperately trying to let its warmth grow.

"It'll keep you awake even under the most intense trance." The voice said with a smile.

Kuna's berries.

Using whatever control I still had over my body, I reached into my jacket pocket to pull out one of the rough skinned fruit, which I bit down on hard. The lights flickered again but this time regaining power. As sensibility reconquered my mind, I saw Yuya and Gimann simultaneously knocked back by two balls of fire and water.

My two partners rushed over to my side. They helped me get up and I felt the Chesto stimulant now coursing through my system. I wouldn't fall into Yuya's trap again. Just what the hell was that anyway?...

I cleared my head of the previous fleeting bloodlust and saw, at the opposite side of the arena, Yuya and Gimann doing just what they were best at; grinning like twisted idiots. This time, they came at us. I took fighting stance; single-knife hand. As they rushed forward, Gimann overtook Yuya and split into three identical bodies, Yuya disappearing amongst them. The three ghosts spread out wide but my eyes followed, Straume and Apollo dissipated the two corner ghosts with their elemental attacks and the middle one came right at me. I used a palm block to strike but this one dissipated just like the others.

What?

"Grawr!" Apollo barked. I looked at him and he saw them above us, coming down from the air as Yuya was unsheathing his katana.

"Shadow Ball! Now!" Yuya shouted. And that black orb of ghostly energy came hurling at us.

We managed to jump out of the way, but I became separated from my partners in the process. Yuya, still lunging with his blade, came right at me, while Gimann flew to Apollo and Straume. Yuya swiped but I read his movement and blocked his arm with my own. Yuya used the momentum of the first failed attack to spin around and slash me again, but I circled and dodged, using his movements as a guide to predict when his next attack would come. I noticed Gimann flying around and crisscrossing with Yuya's and I's little exhibition. Apollo and Straume persistently chased, Apollo launching fireballs to cancel out shots of Gimann's ghostly energy and Straume jumping at his prey to land some chops with his fins, all in attempts at subduing their slippery target. Yuya kept slashing at me, but I kept dodging. All participants of this fight were now in a deadlock of skillful techniques, revolving in clockwork that meant demise if one party slipped up. I managed to set Yuya off balance, giving me the opening for an elbow to the chest. Gimann grabbed his trainer and carried him away from us to regroup. My two chasing partners stood by my side, worn out.

All of us winded from the exchange, we stopped and caught our breath. Naun was still relaying his commentary to an audience who seemed to be too drunk and loud to even be following what was happening. I glanced at my opponent and could tell he was noticing his attempts at both long and close range combat were futile, but I sensed a plot formulating in Yuya's devious, unchanged demeanor. Yuya whispered something to his partner, who then slipped into Yuya's shadow, and once again, he came at us.

My partners, back in formation with me, blasted fire and water again in Yuya's direction. Our attack was perfectly aimed but in an instant, Yuya vanished, reappearing on the opposite side. Again, my partners attacked numerous times, getting the same results as Yuya alternated sides of the ground, but they did not let him get close. Yuya appeared from almost every angle. It was as if he was slipping through this world itself. With the smoke from the attacks seeming to be obscuring my vision, I almost couldn't tell if it was Yuya or Gimann we were aiming at… or something else, something otherworldly…

As the onslaught occurred, I stood there watching, analyzing. What was his trick? In between the attacks, I noticed something. There, on the ground.

As Yuya seemed to vanish and then reappear, a shadow moved to the next location Yuya would appear from. But there was just one problem…that wasn't Yuya.

"Gimann slipped into its own shadow!" I called out to my partners. They ceased their attacks and the false Yuya continued its assault, not letting up the guise before it appeared before us in its true form. It stopped and took a good look at me, with piercing red eyes and flawlessly sharp, white teeth. Gimann clasped its hands together to create a massive black sphere of aura, one that no one would want to be on the receiving end of, at point blank.

I was still trying to analyze and figure out the situation, unsure as to whether or not I should jump the gun and attack the Gimann in front of me, or seek the inevitable hiding spot of its trainer. I couldn't risk falling into another trap.

However I already had.

"Hypnosis." Yuya and the real Gimann were right behind us, but it was too late. The ghost before us vanished and the real Gengar emitted its hypnotic wave of energy, and my partners and I hit the ground on cue. We hadn't felt the effects of hypnosis yet, but we had to buy as much time as possible. Yuya must have got behind me while I was analyzing the dust clouds or something…clever bastard… "Substitute." Yuya said with an obvious smile. "N-Neat move hmm-mm, M-Miss Hikari? My last H-Hypnosis may not have hit-t its mark-k last t-time, but this t-time I was here to be s-sure it didn't miss-s." I almost felt Yuya's tongue hiss at that last word.

Yuya's exploit of confusion and disorientation did land him another would-be game breaker, but I wasn't out yet. I had a strategy that my partners knew too: playing possum. I saw Apollo and Straume eat the berries from their pouches and I reached for my last one as discretely as possible to do the same. Yuya and Gimann got closer. I couldn't see it, but I felt their cheeks pulling back to reveal those rows of teeth.

"W-Well, The E-Electric Empress-s." He said with a tone of demented amusement. "How about we s-show the world that p-pretty face of yours-s one more t-time before your s-sweet dreams-s rob you of its-s g-grace, hmm-mm? Yuya placed his hand on my hood, ready to pull it back, when I grabbed it.

The upper hand was mine.

"Straume!" I called as I used Yuya's weight to pull myself up, and bring him down. My partners jumped from their pseudo-slumber, and we made eye contact. "Earthquake." I said with a contagious smile.

The three of us landed together and Straume jumped up and pounded the ground below him, disrupting the structure of the entire floor of the arena with the three of us safe at its epicenter.

Slabs of stone, overturned dirt, and rising earth drove Yuya and Gimann back several feet. Gimann levitated and dodged the earth being thrown at him while Yuya, initially battered and pummeled by the attack, did surprisingly well at regaining momentum and jumping from one safe point to another with a prowess full of nervous apprehension. Straume's relentless attack gave them no safe place to halt.

With the entire arena an overturned mess of mud, ground and stone, the crowd, who were amazed at the show of elements being presented, got even louder. Naun in the announcer's booth surprisingly had no words for what had just happened; he surely was not fond of having his precious stadium decimated from under him.

I held out my hand to Straume and he gave me a quick high-five followed by a battle cry. I couldn't help but laugh. Apollo imitated him jokingly and let out a howl. The Sentora audience members were uneasy in their seats. Many of them left the arena, unsure as to whether the safety of this battle was worth staying to watch. Their fluster made me smile just a bit more. I looked around at the mess I caused with pride. There almost seemed to be a cool breeze blowing from the ground, but it surely must have been the chilling high I felt from pulling that decisive move off.

I anticipated it, the sound of my big sister's name echoing throughout the stadium. Surely I had won them over, just as Hikari had done before. I listened closely to the sounds of the stadium, my ears searching to decipher the sweet sounds of my sister's name…but I couldn't. I listened closer and I heard them cheering, but not what I was listening for. Their words eluding me as I tried to make out what so many voices were saying.

"Well ladies and gents, it looks like this mysterious 'Red' fighter has really _broken new ground_ when it comes to how matches here are played out. I'm sure Yuya and Gimann wouldn't be the only ones lucky enough to walk out of this arena alive." Naun said with a forced enthusiasm.

Was he talking about me? That's when I noticed, my illusion had finally faded. My red coat was torn, my hood down, and my face was fully exposed to the audience above. It inevitably must have happened during the last exchange with Yuya. Everyone finally had a good look at the real me. I listened again, to the voices of the crowd. Who were they cheering for if I was not their beloved champion? I looked at my coat; it's vibrantly dark shade, radiated amidst a mess of earthy chaos. That's when finally; I understood the sound of their one syllable chant.

"_Red._"

I was my own warrior now.

My two confident partners and I looked past the sharp boulders, jagged rocks, and dug-up earth at the far end of the arena where two livid opponents bared a smile turned completely upside-down. I extended my hand and issued a cocky gesture, moving my fingers toward me, taunting them to come at me again. Though I had used the last of my berries, Yuya had no idea how I escaped the trance of his Hypnosis not once, but twice, and it was that kind of fallacy that was all I needed for him not to try again.

I felt it, a burning sensation, not within me but being sent from across the stadium. I felt his angst, his frustration and his resentment. It was all directed right at me, but I just let it fuel my own flame. Yuya's clothes were ripped, that dark hooded jacket still on him but torn. I saw his face sweating; it was cut and bruised from avoiding near-death from the Earthquake.

A hood no longer obscuring the vision of his features, I saw a young man. His hair was wild and unruly. I looked closer, into his eyes. Despite an outward appearance of disturbing ghoulishness, his eyes showed me something more; a child, deep inside, molded and crafted by the society he lives in. The molding of his home being the reason for why he is what he is. It wasn't easy to see, but I found it.

For a moment, I realized perhaps Yuya and I have much more in common than I thought. We were just products of a social structure, built from the constituents of past experience… Maybe I could have ended up like him under other circumstances… and vice versa. The child I saw far beneath the surface however was encased in a man scowling at me with hatred. This was the man who was my opponent and unfortunately, he had to be defeated.

My flames were fully fueled now and my panting rival was still with fight in him as well. The crowd of the stadium grew silent, in anticipation of the climax of this far too drawn out battle. I had to end this now. Apollo knew; he took position in front of me.

"Growr!" he barked.

"Rshh!" Straume hissed, determined as he stepped forward. He wanted in on the action too but I held out my arm to stop him, he had done plenty. Earthquake was an extremely high level technique, and pushing himself even more could be fatal. It was me and Apollo's turn to strike. We were about to unleash a technique we had mastered through watching Hikari's many battles, one that had gotten me all the way to the finals.

"It looks like the enigmatic 'Red' is about to unleash Hikari's infamous Flame Wheel technique! Hold on to your bearings if you still can folks because this match is farrr from over." Naun exclaimed with hints of his obvious discontent for the unfolding events out of his control.

"GRRRROWR!" Apollo let out a cry and his golden fur set ablaze, golden flames cloaked Apollo with a sparkling aura. Yuya however was of no patience to see the technique unfold because after a few more moments of panting, he smiled.

"Your b-bothersome i-i-insomnia c-c-cannot be overcome, so how about we try a new affliction hm-mm-hm? W-Whoever you are!" He said with a maniacal stutter. Yuya unzipped his jacket, and his bare chest underneath truly disturbed me. My attempts at attack were halted as I became dumbfounded by the complex design I saw. His chest revealed several sharp deep cuts that had penetrated his skin and formed a circular pattern all around his body. In the pattern's center was a complex swirling design; blood giving it all highlighted curvature…

Lost in sheer bewilderment by the design, I almost did not notice something else. On Yuya's arms, wrapped around him in an almost impossible to wake slumber, were two little blue bodies. Ones I had seen before. The blue bodies hung upside-down from Yuya's arms and opened their mouths, revealing four pointed fangs. Then, they spread purple wings. The chill ran down my spine again. It halted my previously thriving flame; then they took flight.

"Kyūk! Ketsu! Go! Supersonic!" Yuya commanded.

I swore under my breath. This was not good at all. The little blue bodies flapped their purple wings and zoomed towards us, spiraling and crisscrossing, while emitting a high-pitched, ear-shattering shriek. The creatures circled around us. I covered my ears and watched as Apollo's golden aura fluctuated. The sound must have bothered his sensitive ears much more than my own. I looked over at Straume and…Straume! What? Where did he go? Straume was gone; he must have bored into the ground or something. If Straume had a plan, I had to trust him because right now, I had to endure this torturous noise.

"Apollo, Flame Wheel! Come on, we can't waste any time!" I called to my partner but he could not function. Apollo's flame burned too uncontrollably and he cut it off before he ended up cooking himself alive. "Dammit." What the hell was I supposed to do now? Yuya and Gimann just watched from afar, those grins of theirs back into place, and they were laughing like maniacs as the sickening Pokémon encircled us. The noise was too much, I couldn't see straight anymore. The circular marking on Yuya's chest seemed to be rotating; spiraling like an all-too-familiar vortex I felt spinning within me and a blue one that was, right now, spinning around me. "Come on, Straume." I whispered. He was our only hope at this point but he could not come above ground without getting caught in the relentless Supersonic. Straume was waiting until it halted, they couldn't keep this up forever.

Naun was transpiring my gloom events to the audience who responded with nothing but a relentless cheer of my new name.

"Red!...Red!...Red!" They did not let up.

I felt the insides of my ears being pounded like a door, eventually the frequency busting down and filling my head with a neurotic sensation that seemed to be dismantling me from my infrastructure, outward.

"Kyūk, Ketsu, P-Poison Fang, l-l-let's end this!" Yuya stammered from across the arena. The Supersonic halted…this was Straume's chance! In a heartbeat, I saw him emerge from the ground but within that same instant, a shadowy ball of energy knocked Straume hard against an upturned stone. That same heartbeat ached as I watched my last knot of hope untied right before me and the ghostly, purple monster smiling at our pain. The two blue Pokémon came at us now, I tried to use whatever strength I could to keep them away but they were too small and nimble.

I felt the stabbing of four sharp teeth being dug into my neck and the oozing sensation of venom being injected into my bloodstream. I could only watch as the same fate unfolded on Apollo. I couldn't give up…not yet, I was so damn close. I grabbed the little bat by the head and yanked it off of me, it shrieked but I pulled its body with my other hand, and ripped; ending its cries as I threw the parts to the floor. The crowd was still chanting "Red" even louder now. They didn't even know who I was but, for some reason, still wanted me to win this match. Apollo must have regained some strength because he found the opportunity to pull off his lethal injector as well, and bite down on it hard as he violently shook his head back and forth, ensuring the kill before tossing it aside.

But it was too late; the poison was already in our systems. I tried to walk but each step made my head pulsate with static. Apollo probably felt the same because he gave up trying to walk and fell to the floor, out of fight.

I could still do this somehow; I needed to get to Straume.

"Don't worry Apollo, rest…I'll take it from here." I whispered to my defeated comrade. I wasn't so sure I was reassuring anybody however…

I endured the crippling effects of poison as I walked over to my fallen partner for as long as I could. The crowd was still chanting the color of my coat, but it was no use. Each step I took seemed to make my head pulsate even harder and the static more painful.

Was this it? Was this how I died? A noble death, trying to keep the spirit of my sister alive? I thought about Hikari. How she always picked on me, but always protected me.

I remembered a time back in our home, before all of this. Before the Hoenn region betrayed us, before Kanto and Johto became divided. I remembered our house, tucked away in the plains north of Cinnabar, how I would have nightmares about ghost Pokémon after reading dad's storybooks at night. How much I cried because I didn't realize they were only dreams, and how Hikari came to hold me and tell me how she scared them all away. I remembered falling back asleep soundly afterwards, but waking up the next morning to a paper cone wrapped around my mouth and my pillow feathers dumped on me, while Hikari called me 'Pidgey.' I remembered the tears that followed when she let the bird Pokémon in and she laughed as they pecked at me, but the tears were not the ones of the night before. I cried, but I was safe, because my big sister would always protect me.

I thought about my Mom and Dad, before Kuna was born. How they were an inseparable team who taught us so much. I thought about Kuna. How she always found love for everyone and everything. I thought about how just by seeing her, I felt so warm inside. How could she go on knowing she had no one left? I promised her I would come back. Only Hiyoku would be left to be blessed with her warmth. I couldn't bear it, the thought of my little sister alone, the thought of it made me angry. I was angry at Sentora for making our lives this way, angry at Hikari for not being here to protect us, angry at Yuya for being better than me. It all burned into one useless flame, one I could not use to fuel a body incapable of fighting any longer.

But still, I heard them.

The crowd, chanting for Red...

"It looks like the crowd's favorite 'Red' fighter is down for the count. Will Yuya end this match now and take the champion title?" Naun commentated indifferently about a person who was about to die in front of so many others. It all made me so angry, and the fact that I could not act upon it infuriated me even more. The flame just burned inside me…in silence, stuck, with no medium of escape.

I opened my eyes, the light not helping my pulsating head. Yuya was walking towards me, that smile cast long across his tarnished face, his blade-carved design displayed bright red, as his jacket pulled back with his steps. The audience was still chanting for 'Red' but this was the only red I could see; the red that was going to win this match. Yuya picked up his fallen katana and got closer. Then…I felt a chill.

The chill of Yuya?...

No…

The chill of death?...

That wasn't it…

The chill of Sentora?...

It was something else…

This was an actual chill. As if the temperature seemed to be dropping…

The upturned stones between Yuya and I seemed to be emanating it, the ground beneath me as well. I looked at the floor and saw it begin to dry out and crack as the chill of the arena gradually continued increase. What the hell was going on?...

I saw my own breath, and the stones around me seemed to become encased in an icy film. Clearly I was not the only one experiencing this because Yuya halted his advance and I heard Naun announce over the loudspeaker.

"Did somebody turn on the AC? Because it sure got a helluva lot chillier in here. BRRRRR!" Naun's voice echoed, each syllable giving a separate pounding to my brain.

The walls of the arena became painted with ice as well but nothing seemed to be halting the crowd's chanting of 'Red.'

Then…the floor between Yuya and I gave way.

In an explosion of freezing winds and blizzardous ice, a pair of blue wings emerged from the ground. They halted, and shined with a wintery glow, before they went underground once more to beat powerfully and bring forth the image of a truly magnificent sight.

An azure bird of massive stature tucked in its wings in midair and let out a fierce cry as it expelled them in a powerful blast of subzero gales, snow, and ice…Was this the afterlife?

No…this was really happening.


End file.
